by
Russellville Area Ministerial AllianceThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

09:10 AM, Friday, February 21 2014 | 3811 views | 0 | 64 | |

A recent debate between Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and the founder of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, has sparked renewed interest in “how” our universe was created. But often, in wondering “how” we overlook the “why.” Why were you created? What is your purpose?

Barry Cooper tells the story of a beautiful building called the Banqueting House in London. When you visit, you see a beautiful painting on the ceiling by the Belgian painter Peter Paul Rubens. The caretakers at the Banqueting House realized there was problem enjoying this beautiful painting on the ceiling — it was literally a pain in the neck.

As you look at this painting after a while it really starts to hurt. What they’ve done to help you is to put mirrors on top of little carts. As you push these carts around, you look into the mirror which enables you to enjoy this glorious painting to your heart’s content.

So why did God create us? In a sense, you and I were made by God to be like those mirrors. We were made to reflect His beauty, His goodness, so that the whole world can see it and enjoy it.

That’s what it means in Genesis 1:27, which says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.” We are designed to be an image of God’s glory reflecting out to a watching world.

Imagine you’ve finished your day trip to see the Banqueting House. You walk out with your friends and someone says, “That was fantastic!” Someone else says, “Yeah, it was fantastic. Those mirrors were amazing!”

But you say, “Well, yeah, the mirrors were good, but they were only good because they reflected the ceiling.” The point of mirrors, the reason they are there, is not to draw attention to them, but to reflect. Our purpose is something similar: to reflect God, and enjoy Him as we do that.

This is so counter-cultural! We are used to drawing attention to ourselves rather than our Creator.

But according to the Bible, that’s not the point of life at all. Bringing glory to self can’t bring us ultimate satisfaction because that’s not who God made us to be. We were designed to bring glory to Him by enjoying Him, appreciating Him and by reflecting Him.

You may ask if this point doesn’t that sound a little egocentric of God. Why does He need his creation to bring glory to him, is He insecure?

It is true that if I demanded everyone glorify me, there would obviously be something deeply insecure or arrogant about me. The difference, of course, is that I’m not God. The difference is that although I’m not the center of the universe, God genuinely is. So it’s good for us to give glory to him. It’s appropriate to give God glory for who He is and what He’s done.

There’s another reason it’s good to give glory to God. It’s the way we were made. You could use a violin as a doorstop, but that’s not what it was made to do. You would be wasting it and it would not make the beautiful music it was created to produce.

In the same way, you and I were designed to thrive and flourish when we do what we were made to do.

You and I were made in God’s image, made to reflect his awesome beauty. It’s only when we live like this that our hearts truly sing. It’s what we were born to do.